B its of 
Life c3 
Bu OHervrtr 
Illustrated T>y 
A KM AC DONALD 
TV 
\fer\jtu ar\(d 
some Sables 
HEN “ Kid ” Brady was sent 
to the ropes by Molly 
McKeever’s blue - black eyes 
he withdrew from the Stove- 
pipe Gang. So much for 
the power of a colleen’s 
blanderin’ tongue and stubborn true- 
heartedness. If you are a man who read this 
may such an influ- 
' ence be sent you 
before two o’clock 
to - morrow ; if you 
are a woman, may 
your Pomeranian 
greet you this morn- 
ing with a cold nose — 
a sign of dog-health 
and your happiness. 
The Stovepipe 
Gang borrowed its 
name from a sub- 
district of the city, 
called the “ Stove- 
pipe / 7 which is a 
narrow and natural 
extension of thefami- 
liar district known as 
“ Hell’s Kitchen.” 
The members of 
i this uncharted but 
widely- known 
j brotherhood ap- 
peared to pass their 
time at street corners, arrayed like the lilies of 
the conservatory, and busy with nail files and 
pen-knives. Thus displayed as a guarantee 
of good faith, they carried on an innocu- 
ous conversation in a two-hundred-word 
vocabulary , to the casual observer as innocent 
and immaterial as that heard in the clubs 
seven blocks to the cast. 
But off exhibition the Stovepipes ” were 
not mere street-corner ornaments addicted to 
posing and manicuring. Their- serious occu- 
pation was the separating of citizens from their 
coin and valuables. Preferably this was done 
by weird and singular tricks, without noise 
or bloodshed ; but whenever the citizen 
honoured by their attentions refused to 
impoverish himself gracefully his objections 
came to be spread finally upon some police- 
station blotter or hospital register. 
The police held the Stovepipe Gang in 
perpetual suspicion and respect. As the 
nightingale’s liquid note is heard in the 
deepest shadows, so, along the “ Stovepipe’s ” 
dark and narrow confines, the whistle for 
help punctures the dull ear of night. When- 
ever there was smoke in the “ Stovepipe,” 
the tasselled men in blue knew there was 
fire in “ Hell’s Kitchen.” 
“ Kid ” Brady promised Molly to be good. 
“ Kid ” was the vainest, the strongest, the 
the “kid.’ : 
Vol. xlvi. — 10. 
